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First Battle of Hancock
The First Battle of Hancock Station, ocurring more or less simultaneous with the Third Battle of Yeltsin's Star, was fought between Task Group Hancock 001 of the Royal Manticoran Navy under Rear Admiral Mark Sarnow and Rear Admiral Genevieve Chin's task group of the People's Navy Task Force commanded by Admiral Yuri Rollins. Prelude Thanks to the intelligence gathered by the covert Argus Net surveillance systems scattered throughout the region, Admiral Rollins knew that Admiral Parks had dispersed his fleet guarding Hancock Station to various nearby systems include Yorik, Zanzibar, and Alizon. Parks, unaware of the presence of Argus, assumed that any PN assault force would need to first scout the system in order to confirm the absence of the majority of Parks' forces, or come from Havenite forces stationed at Seaford Nine, which was being watched by a trio of destroyers. With enough warning, reinforcements would be able to be dispatched from a nearby system to support Battlecruiser Squadron Five, which Parks had left behind to guard the station. Parks was also expecting the arrival of Admiral Danislav's dreadnought squadron shortly, so he believed the system would not be under-strength for long. Admiral Rollins managed to bring all his forces from Seaford Nine after he ambushed and destroyed the destroyers keeping an eye on him, so Hancock Station had no warning that his forces were en-route. While carrying out a training exercise in the Yorik system, Parks' forces stumbled across the ''Conqueror''-class light cruiser [[PNS Alexander|PNS Alexander]] downloading a report from an Argus Net satellite, and realized that his area of command had been under constant surveillance, including his recent redeployment that left Hancock practically undefended. Parks ordered an immediate redeployment back to Hancock, but their forces would not arrive before the arrival of Rollins' Task Force. ( ) Order of Battle As Task Group Hancock 001 comprised only a single battlecruiser squadron and screening elements, Admiral Rollins committed a small portion of his forces: a single dreadnought squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Genevieve Chin screened by all six of his available battlecruisers and several lighter vessels. Rollins himself and three superdreadnought squadrons remained in reserved near the hyperlimit and played no significant role in the battle. ( ) RMN Task Group Hancock 001, (1) CO Rear Admiral Mark Sarnow, (2) acting CO Captain (SG) Honor Harrington, (3) CO (Rear) Admiral Danislav: * Battlecruiser Squadron Five, CO Rear Admiral Mark Sarnow, * Heavy Cruiser Squadron Seventeen, CO Commodore Stephen Van Slyke †, acting CO Captain (SG) Pavel Young, * a light cruiser screening element10 units, exempted from picket deployments, including: [[HMS Anubis|HMS Anubis]], an Apollo-class unit, sent by Admiral Danislav, and [[HMS Arethusa|HMS Arethusa]] †, another Apollo-class unit; organization concerning squadron or flotilla as well as commanding officer of such squadron or flotilla weren't mentioned, * perimeter coverage - some destroyers and probably light cruisers, * Battle Squadron Eighteen, CO Rear Admiral Danislavaccording to Vice Admiral Parks' orders (Rear) Admiral Danislav's forces were planned to strenghten the Task Group Hancock 001; beeing senior to Rear Admiral Sarnow, (Rear) Admiral Danislav would have assumed the command than (HH3) - arrived during battle, * screening element of Battle Squadron Eighteenover forty light units, Battle Squadron Eighteen with its screed constitued de facto a task group - arrived during battle. PN Task Group, CO Rear Admiral Genevieve Chin: * battle squadron, CO Rear Admiral Chin, * battlecruiser squadron, CO Rear Admiral West, * screen of 43 light warships, including: ** a heavy cruiser screening elementincluding ''Scimitar''-class vessels: [[PNS Scimitar|PNS Scimitar]], [[PNS Drusus|PNS Drusus]] and [[PNS Khopesh|PNS Khopesh]] - all three destroyed during battle, ** a destroyer screening elementeven 40 vessels, 6 of them destroyed. Course of Battle Summary Admiral Sarnow made full use of the RMN's technical advantages, first hitting Admiral Chin's forces with a massive salvo of missiles from missile pods, surprising her with decoy drones pretending to be two full battle squadrons of superdreadnoughts, leading her through a minefield, and planning to scatter after a final course change. Sarnow was incapacitated by a volley of missiles that hit HMS Nike just as he was being informed of the arrival of a reinforcement squadron of dreadnoughts. His flag captain, Honor Harrington, decided not to scatter as planned, but instead held the squadron together until Chin's forces were too far inside the hyper limit to escape the dreadnoughts. In a panic following the lack of an order to scatter, Captain Pavel Young ordered his heavy cruiser squadron to scatter, until Harrington ordered them all individually to return to formation. Trapped by the dreadnoughts, Admiral Chin surrendered her forces, and Admiral Rollins, assuming that the arrival of the dreadnoughts was part of a larger trap, retreated his superdreadnoughts from the system. Detailed Course Admiral Sarnow attacked first from stealth with missile pods, which gave his TG the impression of being able to fire as large a broadside of a squadron of superdreadnoughts instead of battlecruisers. The initial salvo destroyed three Havenite battlecruisers (PNS Malik, PNS Sulieman and PNS Walid) and a dreadnought (PNS Nouveau Paris) as well as severely damaging another battlecruiser (PNS Alp Arslan) and dreadnought (PNS Waldensville). Sarnow called this a "sucker punch". As Admiral Chin gave chase to engage with energy weapons, Hancock Station activated it's decoy drones, spooking Chin into thinking two full battle squadrons of superdreadnoughts was accelerating toward her to finish her off, which gave Sarnow's squadron time to open the range. At this point missile fire destroyed the heavy cruiser [[HMS Crusader|HMS Crusader]], killing Commodore Van Slyke and putting Captain Young in charge of the heavy cruiser squadron. Chin suspected that the superdreadnoughts were decoys, although by that point Sarnow's forces were out of energy range. Chin resumed the chase, focusing her salvos on two battlecruisers (HMS Achilles and HMS Defiant), damaging them heavily. Sarnow's course led the dreadnoughts into a minefield, which further reduced Chin's forces down to half of her initial deployment. The mines destroyed the battlecruiser PNS Alp Arslan, the heavy cruisers PNS Scimitar, PNS Drusus and PNS Khopesh, six destroyers, and the dreadnought PNS Waldensville was put out of action. Return fire overwhelmed and destroyed the HMS Defiant and HMS Achilles, although Defiant was able to get a sixth of her crew into escape pods. The last part of Sarnow's defense plan involved a course change that would tempt Admiral Chin into chasing the defending forces for just a little bit longer, away from the fleet base, before a planned scatter. At this point Chin confirmed that the SDs approaching her were decoys, otherwise the defending forces would have altered course toward the SDs, not away. She resumed hammering Sarnow's forces, destroying the battlecruiser HMS Agamemnon, and the heavy cruiser HMS Circe, which had moved to intercept the missiles targeting the HMS Cassandra. At this point, Admiral Rollin's superdreadnought squadrons began to slowly move in-system, toward Hancock Station. Due to massive losses, and the realization that he was only delaying the inevitable, Admiral Sarnow was about to order the scatter, when suddenly he was notified of the arrival of reinforcements for Hancock Station in the form of an RMN dreadnought squadron under Admiral Danislav. Unfortunately at the same instant, Admiral Chin's flagship had a clear shot at HMS Nike, and fired a volley of twenty-four missiles at the battlecruiser. Two veered off to hit the heavy cruiser HMS Warrior, but two made it through defenses to detonate beside Nike, damaging her heavily, and mortally wounding Sarnow. Sarnow's Flag Captain, Honor Harrington, decided not to scatter the Task Group as had previously been planned and to continue to lure Chin's ships into the system so that they would be unable to escape action with this new force. Captain Pavel Young, acting commander of the Task Group's heavy cruisers panicked however and scattered his squadron, leading to heavy damage to HMS Cassandra when defense nets were disrupted. Captain Harrington ordered first Young and then his individual ships to return to their positions alongside HMS Merlin which had declined Young's order. With the exception of Young's own command, [[HMS Warlock|HMS Warlock]], all ships did so and the Task Group eventually scattered at the point where Chin could no longer evade Danislav. Rollins, alerted to the new arrivals by the Argus Net, withdrew rather than engage, believing that he was about to be trapped. Approximately thirty minutes too late to intercept Rollins' ships, Vice Admiral Yancey Parks returned to Hancock Station with the sixteen superdreadnoughts and sixteen dreadnoughts of his Task Force, having realized the threat to his base on discovery of an Argus platform in the Yorik System. ( ) Details of the second phase of the battle, when Battlecruiser Squadron Five was dispersed and Battle Squadron Eighteen appeared, are not certain. However only four flag captains survived at the time rear Admiral Chin surrenderedincluding Honor Harrington (HH4), remained three could be Danislav's officers, presence of flag captains at light cruiser elements subordinated to Rear Admiral Sarnow in not certain and two of her five surviving dreadnoughts were too badly damaged for repair. ( ) Losses Star Kingdom of Manticore * three battlecruisers destroyed: HMS Agamemnon, HMS Achilles and HMS Defiant * three battlecruisers heavily damaged: HMS Cassandra, HMS Nike, HMS Onslaught * two heavy cruisers destroyed: HMS Crusader, HMS Circe * HMS Arethusa, a light cruiser, destroyed People's Republic Of Admiral Chin's forces, forty-three units altogether surrendered (including damaged units listed below). None of Admiral Rollins' forces engaged enemy units until the First Battle of Seaford Nine. * two dreadnoughts destroyed (PNS Nouveau Paris, PNS Waldensville) * five other dreadnoughts damaged and surrendered, three of them taken over by the RMN, * four battlecruisers destroyed (PNS Alp Arslan, PNS Malik, PNS Sulieman, PNS Walid) * three heavy cruisers destroyed (PNS Drusus, PNS Khopesh, PNS Scimitar) * six destroyers destroyed Aftermath Immediately following the Battle, Parks attacked and captured the PN fleet base at Seaford Nine with his combined forces, killing Rollins and destroying all but three of his ships of the wall. Expecting Rollins to have taken Hancock, PN Admiral Coatsworth arrived there with another two battle squadrons shortly after Parks' return from Seaford with four of his own battle squadrons. Outnumbered two to one, Coatsworth retreated with minor losses and withdrew to Barnett. ( ) Captain Lord Pavel Young was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the Royal Manticoran Navy for desertion and cowardice before the enemy. It would be sixteen years before [[HMS Warlock (CA-277)|HMS Warlock]] cleansed the shame from its record at the Battle of Monica. ( , ) References Hancock Station, First Battle of Hancock Station, First Battle of Hancock Station, First Battle of